Comprehensive Prestashop Pricing Review: Understanding the Costs of Building and Managing Your Online Store

According to the latest statistics, Prestashop is the foundation for nearly 300,000 online stores globally, underlining its significance in ecommerce. This open-source software platform is popular because it is suitable for small and medium businesses, which comprise most online stores.

Is Prestashop free? Yes, but more than a shop alone is needed for a complete website. Although the platform can be downloaded and used without paying, launching a website on PrestaShop is not free. The site’s price also includes the work of developers and designers, hosting, etc. So how much does an ecommerce website with Prestashop cost? We calculated everything and described it in this article.

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Table of contents:

What is Prestashop
Prestashop Pricing: How Much Does an Ecommerce Website With Prestashop Cost
Prestashop Pricing Plans
Hosting and Domain Expenses
Prestashop Modules
Prestashop Themes
Payment Gateways and Transaction Fees
Marketing and SEO With Prestashop Review
PrestaShop development & technical support pricing
Conclusion About Ecommerce PrestashopShould you go with PrestaShop?

What is PrestaShop

Prestashop is an open-source ecommerce solution popular in Europe. The platform empowers businesses to create online stores. It provides a selection of over 2000 customizable themes and more than 3000 add-ons. Using these options, companies can customize their internet appearance. The platform is valued for its relative ease of development, great localization features, and intuitive admin panel.

PrestaShop excels in the ecommerce realm with distinct advantages:

• Flexibility in hosting: Decide between independent hosting or company support, catering to different preferences.
• Full Customizability: Users can create online stores that match brand and user experience requirements.
• Native Social Media Integration: Connect with platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to boost the visibility of your online store.
• Localization Opportunities: Robust features help to adapt online stores to diverse languages, currencies, and regional preferences, which is crucial for global expansion.

While PrestaShop brings benefits, consider the following:

• Technical Knowledge Requirement: Creating a website may require basic technical skills, which could be challenging for less-experienced users.
• Subscription Costs: Users opting for support or hosting may incur subscription costs, which are essential to factor into the overall budget.
• Limited Availability of Free Modules: While modules enhance functionality, free options are limited, impacting potential costs.
• Module Conflicts and Performance Issues: Users report occasional conflicts impacting website performance to emphasize the importance of testing.

PrestaShop comes equipped with essential ecommerce features:

• Catalog and Product Sheets Management. Efficient tools for creating and managing catalogues streamline product showcasing.
• Inventory and Order Management. Use advanced features to manage inventory and orders effectively, enhancing efficiency in your supply chain processes.
• Shipping System Management. Tools establish and control shipping processes based on specific business needs.
• Online Payment Integration. Seamlessly integrates with various online payment methods and ensures secure transactions.

PrestaShop boasts strengths in hosting flexibility, customizability, and social media integration. However, potential challenges include technical knowledge requirements, subscription costs, and module-related issues. We will explore these aspects in detail in our Prestashop review and offer a nuanced understanding for users evaluating this platform for their ecommerce needs.

Prestashop Pricing: How Much Does an Ecommerce Website With Prestashop Cost

Prestashop site is a good option for online stores because of its extensive features and adaptability. But it’s essential to be aware of the expenses involved in setting up and maintaining a Prestashop-based online store:

• Domain registration & hosting fees
• Development Costs
• Design Costs
• Prestashop plugins
• Budget allocation for marketing and promotional activities

Prestashop Pricing Plans

When it comes to Prestashop, the term pricing plans can seem elusive. You can download it and give it to your skilled developer. They’ll work their creative magic, redesigning and customizing everything to fit your needs.

With the free PrestaShop version, you’ll receive a fully customizable solution with core application features, access to 4000 themes and add-ons on the PrestaShop Market, and advanced SEO capabilities.

Unlike the Open Source solution, the Hosted offer contains hosting and support services and additional functionalities thanks to the pre-installed modules. These add-ons include:

• Automatic VAT calculation
• GDPR compliance and cookie management
• Support six days a week by email, live chat or phone
• All-in-one payment solution
• Automated ads on Google networks
• Automated ads on Facebook and Instagram
• Marketing Automation
• Shipping service
• Themes included
• Comprehensive analytics tool

You get a free trial of 14 days, after which you should pay from €24 (HT)/month. 

PrestaShop Development

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Hosting and Domain Expenses

In the free version, you’ll need a domain for identification and hosting. The platform will provide both if you opt for the paid version (PrestaShop Hosted).

How much does hosting cost?

The free PrestaShop version can be installed on shared, virtual private (VPS), or a dedicated server. Hosting prices often vary based on the allocated central processing unit (CPU), random access memory (RAM), and solid-state drive (SSD) storage.

Most often, PrestaShop is used with VPS or cloud hosting servers. But for optimal operation of Prestashop on every type of hosting server, the following server configuration is required:

In shared hosting, users utilize the same server infrastructure. All websites on the server share access to a common pool of resources, including bandwidth, storage, and processing power. The main difference between this hosting and others is that if one hosting user occupies a lot of resources, they are taken from other server users. Hosting websites using shared hosting costs around €1-14/month, making it the cheapest web hosting service.

VPS hosting provides dedicated resources and hosting space using virtualization technology to split a physical system into separate virtual servers. Most VPS hosting providers give users full root access to install their software and operating systems. Using VPS, anything you do in your account doesn’t affect other users. VPS hosting costs around €18-95 per month.

You can access an entire physical server dedicated solely to your needs with dedicated hosting. These hosting plans offer users complete control over their server environment, allowing customised software, operating systems, and general configurations. The pricing is primarily influenced by factors such as bandwidth, storage space, and RAM, catering to the requirements of larger projects and businesses. This hosting costs €70-460/month.

Cloud hosting is a separate type of hosting that uses multiple virtual servers to host a website. It ensures reliable uptime and scalable performance for a website. This hosting approach is less susceptible to physical hardware issues as it relies on a network of remote servers. If one server experiences downtime, another takes over to sustain the continuous operation of your website. It’s easy to set up; you can create data backups and give access to data at any time from anywhere. The cloud hosting services cost varies from €10 to €185 per month.

How to choose a hosting provider for PrestaShop?

To choose a hosting provider, you need to assess the load on the site since the choice will depend on it. VPS is most often used for Prestashop. However, if the site is complex and experiences traffic spikes, a dedicated or cloud solution is the right choice.

On average, hosting costs up to $15-80 a month. Prestashop also has an option for $200, which, in addition to hosting, also includes management services. So, the Prestashop team takes care of your hosting. It’s a good solution if you don’t need complete control over your server.

Domains with hosting are most often included in the hosting price. The cost of a domain depends on factors such as the domain extension (e.g., .com, .net, .org, .io, etc.), popularity, region, competition levels, the pricing policy of the registrar company, and market dynamics. Domain activity is renewed annually, and the average pricing varies from €10-30 annually.

Prestashop Modules

Merchants frequently rely on various modules to improve the functioning of their businesses, boost traffic, increase conversion rates, and enhance the user experience.

Ecommerce Prestashop offers more than 4000 modules on its market. You can install free or paid ones. The Prestashop cost of add-ons can vary from free installation to €2800. Remember that additional fees may be incurred for custom modules or customization of ready-made ones.

It’s better to install modules with a developer. Conflicts may arise between plugins, which can only be resolved with technical knowledge. You should also budget for a technician if you need to gain the appropriate skills. Installing different modules can lead to compatibility issues between them. If the modules are not installed correctly, it can lead to the deterioration of the site or turn it off altogether.

PrestaShop Modules and Themes

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Prestashop Themes

Themes are the visual foundation of your online store, defining its appearance and user interface. These pre-designed templates offer a quick and efficient way to customize your ecommerce site.

There are three options for working with Prestashop Themes: make minimal changes, use templates with customizations, or develop a custom theme from scratch. In almost all cases, you may need the help of a designer.

The average rate is about €50-70 per hour. It can be influenced by complexity and the number of pages.

Installed Template with Minimal Changes
You can use a ready-made PrestaShop template or create the design yourself. Usually, this doesn’t require a designer. In this case, all the work involves changing the colour palette and selecting fonts and images to match your brand and the purchased ready-made theme.

The average duration about 8 hours.

Template Theme with Customizations
The designer uses one of the PrestaShop themes and maximizes its visual appearance to align with your brand. Professional work includes simple block rearrangement, possible filter work, and some custom feature design.

The average duration: 20-30 hours.

Use a Fully Custom Theme
This option involves creating a unique design from scratch that will match your brand’s needs. It’s the most flexible and personalized option.

The average duration: 50-100 hours. The development timeline depends on the speed of approvals and the number of revisions. Maximum client involvement is required.

Payment Gateways and Transaction Fees

Prestashop offers a wide array of payment gateway options to cater to the diverse needs of online merchants. The platform also supports various local and regional payment methods, making it accessible globally.

The flexibility of payment gateway choices allows merchants to adapt to their target market and customer preferences. For example, if you’re selling internationally, you can integrate gateways like PayPal to offer a seamless checkout experience for customers worldwide. If your business primarily focuses on a specific region, you can opt for local payment gateways suitable for your customers.

The PrestaShop Checkout module imposes transaction fees according to the chosen payment method.

• For PayPal, a 2.9% + €0.35 fee is applied per transaction.
• Credit and debit card transactions attract a fee of 1.2% plus €0.35.
• While the integration of American Express card payments is forthcoming, it is anticipated to come with a fee of 3.5% plus €0.35.
• An additional charge of 0.5% is levied on cross-border transactions within the Eurozone and 2% for transactions involving other countries.

Transaction fees are an integral part of processing online payments. Prestashop fees can vary significantly depending on several factors, including the payment gateway selected, the transaction volume, and the geographic location of the business.

Marketing and SEO With Prestashop Review

Within the PrestaShop marketplace, a section is dedicated to marketing with free and paid modules.

Free modules provide basic functionality such as simple search engine optimization, marketing campaigns, email collection, analytics, and reporting.

Paid add-ons offer advanced SEO, integration with CRM, analytics systems, more reliable support, regular updates, or other tools to optimize your marketing strategy, potentially leading to increased sales and online store efficiency.

Such an add-on would cost approximately free and up to €630.

Of all the marketing add-ons, you must install several for SEO, integration with other channels, such as Facebook, Amazon, etc., and advertising and sales. Remember that spending on marketing must include the work of an SEO specialist and advertising.

PrestaShop development & technical support pricing

The platform offers many invaluable resources to assist users and Prestashop developers on their ecommerce journey. Suppose you want to create an online store on PrestaShop from scratch. In that case, you may need the services of a QA tester and back-end and front-end developers to configure additional modules, integrate third-party services, and provide technical support.

Beyond its user-friendly interface, Prestashop provides an extensive library of accessible information sources, including comprehensive guides, videos, tutorials, FAQs, and training courses. You can also contact the live chat support Prestashop to solve some questions.

• The average rate for each specialist is €40-60 per hour
• Approximate duration: about 350 hours to design, develop, test, and launch a decent website.

PrestaShop Support

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Conclusion About Ecommerce Prestashop

For those running a small to medium-sized enterprise, Prestashop stands out as the perfect solution. Beyond its remarkable flexibility and seamless operations, Prestashop excels with its vast array of add-on modules and pre-designed themes.

To calculate the final Prestashop price and the cost of your shop, let’s consider different scenarios.

Please note that the actual costs may vary based on specific project requirements, hourly rates, and the complexity of your online store. It’s essential to consult with professionals and obtain quotes for a precise budget estimate.

With the expertise in Prestashop, you can harness the platform’s capabilities to their fullest extent. By understanding the pricing elements and leveraging the platform’s features and support options, you can set up a successful Prestashop ecommerce tailored to your unique business requirements.